The Edmonton Oilers or the Florida Panthers will lift the Stanley Cup on Monday evening after Game 7 (8 p.m. ET; ABC). It will be a historic achievement it doesn’t matter the result: a first-ever championship for the Panthers or a complete series return for the Oilers that hasn’t been seen in the Stanley Cup Final since 1942.
The Oilers have already made history. They are the first NHL team since the 1944-45 Detroit Red Wings to fall behind 3-0 in the Cup final and force a Game 7. Win Monday night and they join the Toronto Maple Leafs of 1941-42 as the only teams to finish. the work.
“It’s not an ordinary game, everyone understands that, but you have to make it as ordinary as possible in your head,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said Sunday. “Our gym has done a great job of being at our best in those big moments, and I wouldn’t expect anything different.”
After the Panthers win 4-3 in the third game, it looked like Florida would end up being crowned champions. They were in total control of the series and the Oilers had no answers. Even after Edmonton’s 8-1 loss in Game 4 To avoid elimination, it was thought the Panthers would bounce back and close out Game 5 at home.
But they didn’t do. The series I walked away from the Panthers and the Oilers woke up, including McDavid, who recorded eight points in victories in Games 4 and 5. He has now helped bring the franchise to the game every young hockey player dreams of.
One win and you are forever a champion.
“You’re not sure you’ll ever get that opportunity,” McDavid said. “Here we are with this opportunity.”
There will be nerves in Game 7 on both sides. But if you’re the Panthers, having an extra day off between Games 6 and 7 and realizing you’re about to blow a 3-0 lead in the Cup final could have a negative effect on their mental preparation.
“I think this is going to be the ultimate test for the Florida Panthers mentally,” Mike Rupp of NHL Network told Yahoo Sports on Monday. “I think it’s a very strong mental group. You can turn off your television, you can turn off social media, you can put your phone down, you still know it was 3-0. You have had several opportunities to close this case and now you must stay here one more day and think about it. It must be hard.
“I’ve never been there. How can you get that out of your head and make sure you don’t think about it?”
Rupp knows the pressure of playing a seventh game. He participated in six of them during his 11-season NHL career, but none were as memorable as his performance in the final game of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, when he scored a goal. and recorded two assists as the New Jersey Devils blanked the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 3-0 to win their third title.
As a 23-year-old rookie, Rupp was surrounded by veterans and future Hall of Famers on the Devils team. Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko, Patrik Eliáš and Sergei Brylin, among others, were in that locker room, acting as if the seventh game of a Cup final was just another day of the season.
That’s how the Panthers need to approach Monday night. They should also, as Rupp notes, remember why they are on the verge of winning a championship for the second straight season.
“It’s really important for them not to stand there and look at their opponent and say: “Oh, they have Connor McDavid, they’re breaking records, it hasn’t been done since 1945′ And ‘Oh my God, we were up 3-0.’ You can’t think about it,” Rupp said. “At some point you have to turn it around (and) say, ‘Let’s not forget who we are. It’s not about everything they are and everything we need to adapt to who they are..’”
The Panthers won the Atlantic Division title, finished third in the Eastern Conference and lost just five times in three rounds en route to the Stanley Cup Final. They’ve also already beaten this Oilers team three times in a row, dominating the forecheck, getting timely goals and solid goaltending from Sergei Bobrovsky.
“It doesn’t matter how it happened or how you drafted it,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “It’s an absolutely incredible, incredible opportunity. So, yes, you want to recognize or remember some of the good things that helped you beat these guys earlier in the series, but I try to forget it all. Go out there and win a match. That’s what it comes down to.
All that remains is game seven and one last victory that separates them from a summer of celebration.
“You only have one game to play. It doesn’t matter how you got here,” Rupp said. “That’s the only message that can be put out there.”
2024 Stanley Cup Final (series tied 3-3)
Game 1: Panthers 3, Oilers 0
Game 2: Panthers 4, Oilers 1
Game 3: Panthers 4, Oilers 3
Game 4: Oilers 8, Panthers 1
Game 5: Oilers 5, Panthers 3
Game 6: Oilers 5, Panthers 1
Game 7: The Oilers at the Panthers | Monday, June 24, 8 p.m. ET (ABC, ESPN+)
